[Senate Hearing 117-96]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]





                                                         S. Hrg. 117-96
 
         OVERSIGHT OF LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MODERNIZATION EFFORTS

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               before the

                 COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                            OCTOBER 20, 2021

                               __________

    Printed for the use of the Committee on Rules and Administration
    
    
    
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]    


                  Available on http://www.govinfo.gov
                  
                  
                  
                          ______

              U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
46-033                WASHINGTON : 2021 
 
                   
                  
                  
                  
                 COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION

                             FIRST SESSION

                  AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota, Chairwoman

DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California         ROY BLUNT, Missouri
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York         MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky
MARK R. WARNER, Virginia             RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama
PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont            TED CRUZ, Texas
ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine            SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West 
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon                     Virginia
ALEX PADILLA, California             ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
JON OSSOFF, Georgia                  DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
                                     CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi
                                     BILL HAGERTY, Tennessee

                    Elizabeth Peluso, Staff Director
             Rachelle Schroeder, Republican Staff Director
             
                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              
                                                                  Pages

                         Opening Statement of:

Honorable Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from 
  the State of Minnesota.........................................     1
Honorable Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of 
  Missouri.......................................................     3
Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress, 
  Washington, DC.................................................     5
Ms. Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director, United 
  States Copyright Office, Washington, DC........................     7
Dr. Mary Mazanec, Director, Congressional Research Service, 
  Washington, DC.................................................     8
Mr. Jason M. Broughton, Director, National Library Service for 
  the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress, Washington, 
  DC.............................................................     9

                         Prepared Statement of:

Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress, 
  Washington, DC.................................................    24
Ms. Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director, United 
  States Copyright Office, Washington, DC........................    34
Dr. Mary Mazanec, Director, Congressional Research Service, 
  Washington, DC.................................................    43
Mr. Jason M. Broughton, Director, National Library Service for 
  the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress, Washington, 
  DC.............................................................    49

                  Questions Submitted for the Record:

Honorable Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from 
  the State of Minnesota to Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of 
  Congress, Library of Congress, Washington, DC..................    55
Honorable Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of 
  Missouri to Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, Library of 
  Congress, Washington, DC.......................................    56
Honorable Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of 
  Missouri to Ms. Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and 
  Director, United States Copyright Office, Washington, DC.......    63
Honorable Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from 
  the State of Minnesota to Dr. Mary Mazanec, Director, 
  Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC.................    69
Honorable Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of 
  Missouri to Dr. Mary Mazanec, Director, Congressional Research 
  Service, Washington, DC........................................    70
Honorable Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of 
  Missouri to Mr. Jason M. Broughton, Director, National Library 
  Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress, 
  Washington, DC.................................................    72


         OVERSIGHT OF LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MODERNIZATION EFFORTS

                              ----------                              


                      WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2021

                               United States Senate
                      Committee on Rules and Administration
                                                     Washington, DC
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:07 p.m., in 
Room 301, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Amy Klobuchar, 
Chairwoman of the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Klobuchar, Blunt, Ossoff, Capito, 
Fischer, and Hagerty.

  OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE AMY KLOBUCHAR, CHAIRWOMAN, A 
       UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA

    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Good afternoon. I call this hearing 
of the Rules and Administration Committee on Oversight of the 
Library of Congress's Modernization Efforts to order. I would 
like to thank Ranking Member Blunt, our colleagues, and our 
witnesses for being here, in what we will consider an island of 
sanity on a rather insane day today. Right here in this room, 
we are going to be constructive, as you always are, and I want 
to thank you for the work that you have all done on behalf of 
our Nation's Library.
    In particular, I would like to thank Librarian of Congress
Dr. Carla Hayden for once again appearing before the Committee 
and for maintaining a steady hand at the Library through a 
really difficult time, the pandemic. A place where so many 
people are used to coming in in-person and walking through the 
doors, like every other agency and every other business. It has 
not been easy.
    I would also like to welcome our other witnesses, Shira 
Perlmutter, who is the Register of Copyrights and Director of 
the United States Copyright Office, Ms. Mary Mazanec, who is 
the Director of the Congressional Research Service, something 
we all use, and Mr. Jason Broughton, who is the Director of the 
National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, who 
just joined the Library last month, after previously serving as 
Vermont's first African American State Librarian.
    So congratulations on your new position. As some of you 
know, I know that Dr. Hayden knows it, it was my childhood 
dream to be a librarian. That is what I put down in first grade 
of what I wanted to do. I started my own Dewey Decimal System 
in a box of all the books that I read. My career, sadly, took a 
different path, but this is still very important to me. The 
reason I wanted to be a librarian is it was my favorite thing 
to go to the library and check out books and read them. 
Libraries are an essential part of our civic infrastructure, 
holding society's important records, critical research, and 
works of art. They preserve and share this knowledge for future 
generations.
    We are here today to discuss the ongoing efforts to 
modernize the largest library in the world, the Library of 
Congress. Okay, I just learned that as I read it, that we do in 
fact have the largest Library in the world. The Library holds 
more than 171 million volumes and has the world's largest 
collections of legal materials, films, and sound recordings. 
People come from all over the world to see these collections, 
even in the midst of the pandemic. Last year, the Library 
welcomed more than half a million visitors in person and 
increased its online traffic by more than 50 percent, to nearly 
175 million unique visits.
    Thousands of dedicated staff at the Library work to ensure 
that these important resources are available to the public. My 
own husband has written a number of historical books and spent 
much time in the Library of Congress researching. The 
initiatives,
Dr. Hayden, that you have launched and the reforms you have 
implemented speak to your vision of a library that is inclusive 
and accessible to everyone. The stated goal of the Library's 5-
year strategic plan released in 2018, Enriching the Library 
Experience, is to expand the Library's intellectual and 
inspirational value to people across the country, and to engage 
and inform all Americans from all walks of life.
    When we held our last oversight hearing on Library 
Modernization in 2019, you, Dr. Hayden, explained that in order 
to achieve these goals and increase accessibility, you had 
begun a modernization effort to ensure that the Library keeps 
pace with the rapid advancement of technology. I note that this 
was in November, right before the onslaught of the pandemic, so 
it is good you had a plan.
    Digital access and connectivity to the Library's 
collections have proved, as I have noted--especially during the 
pandemic--investments in the Library's information technology 
systems and programs are essential for the Library to fulfill 
its mission. Briefly, the Copyright Office. The Library of 
Congress is home, of course, to the Copyright Office, critical 
to our economy. According to a study released last year, 
businesses and artists who rely on copyrights contribute more 
than $1.5 trillion to our economy annually. That translates to 
about 7 percent of the total United States GDP and 5.7 million 
jobs. If you are an author, musician, filmmaker, or any one of 
the millions of Americans who create content, the Copyright 
Office is the place for you to go.
    Copyrights are essential to the vitality and creativity of 
our economy and modernizing the office to keep pace with the 
technology and content is a priority for our Nation. We look 
forward to hearing those updates as well as the implementation 
of legislation that has passed in recent years, including the 
Music Modernization Act and the CASE Act. Congressional 
Research Service for members and our staff, very important, 
75,000 congressional requests in the year 2020. CRS informs 
Congress on many of the most pressing legislative issues facing 
our Nation, providing non-partisan analysis that informs the 
policymaking process.
    Finally, last but not least, the National Library Service 
for the Blind and Print Disabled performs the critical role of 
ensuring that the Library's resources are available to 
everyone. Ensuring that those who cannot read print have access 
to modern braille devices. That continues to be one of Senator 
Blunt's and my top priorities. Today we are going to hear more 
about NLS's several ongoing efforts to expand access to its 
services, including by providing braille eReaders, and with its 
growing library of nearly 150,000 downloadable braille and 
audio reading materials.
    The Library has a rich and celebrated history, and we look 
forward to hearing about the modernization efforts at this 
critical time. With that, I turn it over to my friend, real 
friend and colleague, Senator Blunt.

   OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE ROY BLUNT, A UNITED STATES 
               SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI

    Senator Blunt. Real friend, as opposed to just sort of made 
up Senatorial friend. But we are----
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. There are a lot of those in this 
building----
    Senator Blunt. There are, and we do lots of this work 
together. In fact, when you mentioned the largest library in 
the world was the Library of Congress, and you had just read 
that, it reminded me of Senator Dole, who I never served with, 
but he had this great sense of humor, who said he often liked 
to read his speech for the first time before the crowd, that 
way they could be equally surprised.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Blunt. But we are glad----
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. I may use that line. That is very 
good.
    Senator Blunt. So, Senator Klobuchar, thanks for calling 
this hearing. Dr. Hayden, it is nice to see you again so soon. 
I was glad to have a chance just a few weeks ago to film a 
little promotion video with you for the Veterans History 
Project. I certainly think and hope we can talk more about that 
project later today. But after some time working a long way 
apart, it is nice to have us all back and able to be in the 
same room, even in under maybe different circumstances than we 
sometimes would like. In our last hearing in November 2019, we 
discussed the progress in modernizing the Library, as well as 
the work yet to be done there.
    It certainly has been an eventful two years since then, and 
you have dealt with a number of issues, all of you have, that 
you wouldn't have expected to deal with as we have. I will tell 
you, my colleagues and I, and certainly Senator Klobuchar and I 
are interested in the Library's successful modernization, and 
we want you to know that we are supportive of the ongoing 
effort you are making there.
    People depend on the Library in ways that they might not 
have anticipated and get their information in ways that they 
wouldn't have anticipated just a few years ago. For our other 
witnesses today, Mr. Broughton, thanks for being here and 
taking this job. When I was the Secretary of State in Missouri, 
we brought the State Library and the Wolfner Library for the 
Blind into the Secretary of State's Office. I watch what you 
are doing carefully.
    As Senator Klobuchar mentioned, that is one of the things 
we are both committed to doing everything we can to be sure 
that we make all of that information as accessible and stored 
as properly when it is not being out as it needs to be. 
Certainly, the copyright issues, Ms. Perlmutter, are huge 
issues. I think looking at the things that you are working on 
to try to find a better way where the individual content 
creator or the small business creator really has an opportunity 
to defend what they have created, if that happens. Certainly 
the Congressional Research Service, particularly in our office, 
but particularly in the Republican Policy Committee that I 
chair, I think we have contacted you multiple times almost 
every day of the week.
    I am sure that Senator Stabenow's team in the Democrat 
Policy Council does the same thing, so thanks for what you all 
do. I am glad that you are here. You know, shortly before Dr. 
Hayden took the reins at the Library. In fact in 2016 the 
Government Accounting Office released a report highlighting 
serious vulnerabilities they thought in the Library's 
information technology infrastructure and giving the Library a 
list of recommendations. Over the last five years, the Library 
has made great strides in centralizing its IT systems, and I 
think closing out nearly all of those recommendations, we might 
revisit the last challenges in that front.
    The project in the Thomas Jefferson Building to create a 
youth center, a treasures gallery for the Library's rare 
collections, and an orientation space in one of the most 
remarkable buildings in the world--if it didn't have that great 
collection at it, the building itself is certainly a jewel that 
we couldn't recreate today. But the things that you are doing 
there to try to open the building up and welcome people into 
the building in different ways I think are so important. What 
you did to make the Library's collections available during the 
pandemic, and I know we had well over a year of constantly 
looking for new ways to make things available to people in the 
past would have got them in their own library or in the library 
here in different ways, it has been important and will pay 
dividends for a long time.
    The pandemic had tragic circumstances, but in many things 
it just required us to look at the technology that had been out 
there and use it in ways that we might have used it five years 
ago, but we weren't. To have the real need for the Congress to 
provide the resources and each of you to provide leadership has 
made a big difference. Again, Senator Klobuchar, thanks for 
holding this hearing today, and I look forward to a chance to 
ask some questions as--along with you.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Alright. Well, thank you very much, 
Senator Blunt. Our first witness today is the Librarian of 
Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden. Dr. Hayden was sworn in as the 14th 
Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016, supported by both 
Senator Blunt and myself. She is the first woman and the first 
African-American to lead the National Library. Previously, she 
served as CEO of the library in Baltimore, and beginning--and 
that was beginning in 1993. In 2010 she was nominated by 
President Obama and confirmed as a member of the National 
Museum and Library Services Board.
    Earlier in her career, she held positions with the Museum 
of Science and Industry in Chicago, University of Pittsburgh, 
and Chicago Public Library. She received her undergraduate 
degree from Roosevelt University and her Masters of Art and 
Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where I went to law 
school.
    Next up, Ms. Perlmutter is the Register of Copyrights and 
Director of the United States Copyright Office. She was 
appointed to the position in October 2020. Prior to her 
appointment, she served as Chief Policy Officer and Director 
for the International--for International Affairs at the United 
States Patent and Trademark Office. She previously held 
positions at the International Federation of the Phonographic 
Industry and at Time Warner. She received her undergraduate 
degree from Harvard and her law degree from the University of 
Pennsylvania.
    Third, Mary Mazanec. Ms. Mazanec has served as Director of 
the Congressional Research Service since 2011. Before joining 
CRS, she worked from 2002 to 2010 with the United States 
Department of Health and Human Services, where she served in 
the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and 
Response. She previously served as a fellow to the Subcommittee 
on Public Health in the Senate HELP Committee. She received her 
undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and both 
a Doctorate in Medicine and a law degree from Case Western 
Reserve University.
    Our fourth and final witness is Mr. Jason Broughton. He is 
the Director, as noted, the new Director of the National 
Library of Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. Prior to 
joining the Library of Congress in 2019, he became the first 
African-American to serve as Vermont State Librarian, where he 
engaged in strategic planning and established a long term 
vision for the State Library. For over a decade he has held 
numerous roles for libraries in South Carolina and Georgia.
    He earned his undergraduate degree from Florida A&M, his 
Master's in Library and Information Science from the University 
of South Carolina, and his Master's in Public Administration 
from the University of South Florida. I will now swear in the 
witnesses. If the witnesses would now please stand. Raise your 
right hand. Do you swear that the testimony you will give 
before the Committee shall be the truth, the whole truth and 
nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
    Ms. Hayden. Yes.
    Ms. Perlmutter. Yes.
    Ms. Mazanec. Yes.
    Mr. Broughton. Yes.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you. You will be seated. We 
will now proceed to your testimony, and we will recognize each 
of you for a 5-minute statement. We are also excited because 
this is our first hearing where no one was remote of the 
witnesses, so this is like a new moment for us in a few years. 
So we go--start with you, Dr. Hayden.

   OPENING STATEMENT OF CARLA HAYDEN, LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, 
              LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, DC

    Ms. Hayden. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member 
Blunt. We appreciate this opportunity to appear today in person 
to discuss the programs and priorities of the Library of 
Congress. I am very pleased to share with the Committee updates 
about how we are modernizing to ensure high quality service to 
Congress and your constituents back home.
    Joining me today are the Register of Copyrights, Shira 
Perlmutter, CRS Director Mary Mazanec, and Jason Broughton, 
former Vermont State Librarian and who joined us just a few 
weeks ago in his new role as Director of NLS. I am very pleased 
to report that the Library continued to operate and maintain 
productivity while managing the challenges of the pandemic. In 
fact, our readiness to transition to post-pandemic operations 
greatly benefited from Congress's support and the recent 
investments in our ongoing technical transformation.
    All Library divisions launched new initiatives to open what 
we call the digital treasure chest and our digital front door. 
For example, we celebrated the Library's 220th birthday last 
April with the release of the LOC Collections mobile app. We 
held many virtual student workshops and town halls with Members 
of Congress. We recently revamped our dedicated teachers' 
website at loc.gov, and we were able to complete the 
digitization of 23 early Presidential collections from George 
Washington to Coolidge. Just last month, we held the National 
Book Festival with enhanced digital features such as streaming 
and online interactives, as well as a National PBS broadcast 
hosted by the legendary literary champion LeVar Burton. 
Expanding digital access is clearly more important than ever, 
and indeed visits to our websites and pages rose by nearly 50 
percent in fiscal year 2020.
    We are also moving forward with the design of the new 
Visitor Experience in the Thomas Jefferson Building, including 
a welcoming orientation gallery for the first time, featuring 
Thomas Jefferson's Library; a Treasures Gallery to display the 
scope of our collections, that will be a rotating treasures 
gallery; and a youth center to inspire learners of every age. 
With the recent release of $10 million in fiscal year 2021 
funds, the Library will begin to fund the physical 
construction, fabrication, and the installation of all phases 
of the project.
    Key IT modernization initiatives continue to move forward, 
building on our progress to date, and this includes modernizing 
the legacy IT systems for the Copyright Office, CRS and NLS, 
which you will hear more about today. For example, we released 
pilots for the copyright recordation and public record systems, 
we are leveraging the latest advances in web based technologies 
to upgrade the systems CRS uses to respond to Congress, and NLS 
is piloting a new e-reader and expanding the braille and audio 
download services.
    I must note that Congress.gov, the official public website 
for legislative information, is in continuous development with 
new functionality added every three weeks based on user 
feedback. In addition, the Library is also pursuing technology 
upgrades for the system, LCAP, that supports collection 
activities such as acquisitions and circulation. Physical 
collections stewardship continues to be a major focus, with the 
steady transition of collections to high tech, specially 
designed storage at Fort Meade. The latest Fort Meade Project, 
Module 7 will be critical, an actual turning point for the 
Library's long term storage strategy once it is constructed.
    In closing, the Library is moving forward in substantial 
ways across the agency, and we are excited about the progress 
that has been made. We are very cognizant of the work that 
remains to be done and the promise of the future that will 
enable these efforts. As always, we remain committed to 
providing excellent service to Congress. We are your Library 
and the Library of the people you serve. So thank you again for 
your continued interest and support. I have submitted more 
extensive written remarks for the hearing record.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Hayden was submitted for the 
record.]
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you so much, Dr. Hayden. Next 
up, Ms. Perlmutter.

 OPENING STATEMENT OF SHIRA PERLMUTTER, REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS 
  AND DIRECTOR, UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT OFFICE, WASHINGTON, DC

    Ms. Perlmutter. Chairwoman Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt, 
thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on the 
accomplishments of the United States Copyright Office. Our 
staff has shown remarkable resilience during the pandemic, and 
we have been able to continue providing high quality services 
to the American public with minimal disruption.
    I am pleased to report achievements on a number of fronts, 
with important milestones in modernization, implementation of 
recent legislation, and improved overall processing times for 
electronic submissions.
    We have made significant progress on modernization. We have 
launched an electronic recordation pilot, as well as a pilot of 
a new improved interface for our Copyright Public Record 
System. We expect to move both of them out of pilot and into 
full production in 2022.
    We also began testing a new clickable prototype of the 
standard registration application. Earlier this year, the 
Library established a Copyright Public Modernization Committee 
to enhance communications with stakeholders on IT issues. We 
have also made great strides in implementing two historic 
pieces of copyright legislation, the Copyright Alternative in 
Small-Claims Enforcement Act, or CASE Act, and the Music 
Modernization Act, or MMA. The Office has been working 
intensively to set up the small claims forum by the December 
deadline.
    We have been promulgating the regulations to govern its 
operations, and we have already brought on board all three 
Copyright Claims Officers. We have contracted for the needed 
technology, including an online case management system. 
Finally, the Office issued all regulations needed to implement 
the MMA, including the framework for administering the new 
blanket license. As to ongoing operations, at the beginning of 
the pandemic, the Office quickly transitioned 98 percent of our 
staff to full or partial telework.
    Those operations that require the handling of physical 
materials have gradually resumed. Currently about 43 percent of 
our staff are onsite at least part time. That includes the 
Public Information Office, which has provided in-person 
services by appointment since early July. In Fiscal 2020, the 
Office registered nearly half a million copyright claims 
involving millions of works of authorship. Over the past year, 
we have managed to significantly reduce the average processing 
time for registration claims.
    The Office also recorded ownership information for over 
230,000 works. The online recordation pilot has already proved 
successful in avoiding the delays of the existing paper based 
system. Feedback from users is enthusiastic and processing time 
is now measured in weeks rather than months. The Office 
continues to have an active public outreach and education 
program as we have moved our events online.
    Finally, our legal and policy work has continued without 
interruption, including several policy studies and numerous 
regulations. So in sum, the past year and a half has been 
challenging but also productive. We appreciate the Committee's 
continued support. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Perlmutter was submitted for 
the record.]
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Very good. Thank you. Dr. Mazanec?

    OPENING STATEMENT MARY MAZANEC, DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL 
                RESEARCH SERVICE, WASHINGTON, DC

    Ms. Mazanec. Chairwoman Klobuchar and Ranking Member Blunt, 
thank you for the opportunity to present testimony today on 
behalf of the Congressional Research Service. With today's 
testimony, I will update the Committee on a number of important 
initiatives to ensure that CRS continues to provide support of 
the highest quality to Congress.
    CRS recognizes that today's Congress operates in an 
environment that is significantly different from its 
predecessors. Congress juggles an ever increasing workload of 
complex policy issues during a time of constrained resources. 
While Congress enjoys access to vast amounts of information, 
not all information sources are authoritative or without bias. 
CRS is keenly aware of these challenges and is constantly 
modernizing its work to optimize its support of Congress.
    For example, the service has developed shorter, more 
concise products to provide timely information and analysis on 
the issues. In addition, CRS has enhanced its product line, 
creating and piloting new visual and audio formats such as 
instructional videos, interactive graphics, and podcasts. These 
products enable members and their staff to access the Service's 
expertise at their convenience and in a format they prefer.
    In response to evolving congressional priorities, CRS has 
instituted hiring actions to bolster expertise in emerging or 
expanding policy areas. For example, CRS has created 12 
additional positions to strengthen its analysis of science and 
technology issues. CRS continues to work with the Library's 
Chief Information Officer to modernize its IT infrastructure. 
This multi-year initiative will provide CRS staff with the best 
resources to create products and services for Congress.
    Preserving CRS's institutional knowledge is an important 
component of the Service's ability to support the Congress. CRS 
is implementing strategies to manage the knowledge that it 
creates, including the capture of tacit knowledge held by 
senior analysts, attorneys, and information professionals.
    Last, CRS continues to collaborate with our congressional 
partners to modernize the process by which data is exchanged 
for Congress.gov. These modernization efforts will better 
safeguard congressional data by retiring less secure legacy 
workflows and establish the foundation for future enhancements. 
Finally, on behalf of my colleagues at CRS, I want to thank the 
Committee for its continued support.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Mazanec was submitted for 
the record.]
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Mr. Broughton?

  OPENING STATEMENT OF JASON M. BROUGHTON, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL 
 LIBRARY SERVICE FOR THE BLIND AND PRINT DISABLED, LIBRARY OF 
                    CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, DC

    Mr. Broughton. Chairwoman Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt, 
and members of the Committee, it is an honor to appear before 
you representing the National Library Service for the Blind and 
Print Disabled. Thank you for this opportunity to join you 
today.
    Congress has played a key role in NLS's creation, history, 
and ongoing successes, and I look forward to working with you 
as I begin my tenure within NLS. As only the third NLS Director 
in the last 48 years, I am honored and humbled to lead this 
incredible team as we continue with an extraordinary work. 
Drawing from my life and professional experiences, most 
recently as the state librarian for the Great State of Vermont, 
I am energized by and enthusiastic about contributing to NLS's 
unique mandate and mission.
    Also as a seasoned educator, I work together and share 
information and knowledge and make it available and accessible 
to citizens of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life. My 
diverse background has prepared me well to serve you and the 
Library as an NLS Director and has positioned me to understand 
what Americans and state entities need and should expect from 
NLS. NLS and its network of 98 libraries span the Nation, 
having served the American people for now 90 years.
    All along, we have been able to rely on the generous 
support of Congress. Because of this, we are thriving. Despite 
the challenges of COVID-19, NLS continues to serve hundreds of 
thousands of patrons via its partner libraries. During fiscal 
year 2020, NLS circulated over 20 million books, magazines and 
music items. NLS's braille, audio, and reading download 
interface, also known as BARD, now contains an astonishing 
146,733 items, and the overall collection includes over 310,000 
accessible items.
    Congress's support has been indispensable to the success, 
from increasing our base funding each year to supporting our 
additional funding request for our IT modernization work and e-
reader development, to updating our statutory authorization to 
meet current needs. We and our patrons thank you. Your support 
allowed NLS working with the Library's Office of the Chief 
Information Officer to move BARD to the cloud, increasing 
download speeds for audiobooks. Your support for our e-reader 
project has resulted in thousands of devices now in the hands 
of patrons.
    Your legislative support allowed NLS to update its name and 
empowered NLS to participate in Marrakesh Treaty, allowing 
patrons access to even more materials, including to date 1,163 
Marrakesh works available in BARD in eight languages. NLS with 
your assistance, was able to also update regulatory language to 
ease access for reading disabled individuals, resulting in a 35 
percent increase to this patron group.
    In closing, as the new Director of NLS, I am dedicated to 
NLS's excellent work to serving more patrons and to leading NLS 
into the next 90 years to ensure that all may read. I am happy 
to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Broughton was submitted for 
the record.]
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much. Excellent job. 
Senator Blunt will go first, and I think Senator Ossoff is out 
there now. I will go after that. But go ahead, Senator Blunt.
    Senator Blunt. Well, thank you, Chair. Dr. Hayden let's 
talk just a little bit about the visitor experience master 
plan. One, how are we doing on our effort to afford it? I know 
you said in your testimony you were ready to start. I think it 
would certainly anticipated that we will have a appropriations 
process this year, and I think that final $10 million will 
provide the $40 million that was the commitment, outside of 
private funding. So am I right that you are ready to start? 
Two, what does your private funding situation look like now?
    Ms. Hayden. Well, thank you for this question. We were able 
to continue to make very solid progress during the pandemic. 
Most of the work during that time had to do with design 
elements and things that lent themselves to the digital and 
teleworking environment. At this point, we have nearly $14 
million in cash and commitments for the private fundraising.
    Mr. David Rubenstein made a substantial gift personally, 
and is very engaged in the efforts to continue that. We have 
several outstanding proposals that we are very hopeful about so 
that we would be able to complete the private fundraising. We 
also were able to secure some major gifts from the Mellon 
Foundation, $15 million over a certain number of years, $10 
million from the Kislak Foundation, and $500,000 from the Ford 
Foundation that will help with the programing that will 
supplement. So in terms of each of the projects, the Treasures 
Gallery, and these projects, the three will be opening in 
phases.
    The Treasures Gallery is scheduled to be opening in the 
fall of 2023. There have been some design changes, and so we 
are very pleased to see that project move along and stay very 
much on schedule. The Orientation Gallery will be able to open 
in the spring of 2025, and that has some more complicated 
construction and design things with the Oculus that will look 
up into the reading room, and some life safety issues. I do 
want to take this opportunity to thank the Architect of the 
Capitol--that whole Department has worked with us all the way. 
They have been very helpful with that.
    Then the youth center is scheduled to open in the summer of 
2024. So these, with the additional funding that will be 
coming, we will be able to move into the fabrication stage and 
with detailed plans and to get into construction. We are 
preparing the bid documents for that part. So it is moving 
ahead, and it is starting to get pretty exciting because we 
have more renderings, we have focus groups, we even had a focus 
group of congressional young people who were helping us with 
the youth center.
    Senator Blunt. Great. Great. Let me let me ask another 
question. As you put that visitor experience master plan 
together, what do you think you have learned that will--you 
will use in other Library of Congress decisions in the future? 
Are there things you have learned that you will be recommending 
to other large libraries or libraries generally that you are 
going to be sharing as you are speaking to groups and talking 
to librarians after you have thought about making the Library a 
different place than it has been?
    Ms. Hayden. What has been interesting has been the 
confluence of what we have had to do in terms of the pandemic 
and moving to more online programing. We were able to 
incorporate some of those lessons learned, like the fact that 
you can have meaningful author talks and all types of things 
that we might not have considered to such an extent if we 
hadn't had the experience that we had in the last year or two. 
So it really informed, and those are the lessons learned that 
most libraries throughout the country are incorporating, 
because the Library of Congress, for instance, was able to 
spread out throughout the country with virtual programing for 
instance, with the National Book Festival.
    We partnered with Centers for the Book in every state to 
have the book festival in your community. So those types of 
things will allow us to make the in-person experience more 
meaningful, for instance, in the Treasures Gallery, and 
possibly in the Orientation Gallery, you will be able to see 
and talk to a conservationist in the conservation lab in the 
Madison Building and see them do things and give 
demonstrations.
    So those types of things, using technology in a way that 
engages people and allows people who aren't physically there to 
also participate.
    Senator Blunt. Okay, thank you. I will have some other 
questions later, Chairwoman.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much. Thank you. I 
will start with you, Dr. Hayden, could you talk about what you 
are doing to ensure the public has meaningful access to such a 
vast amount of information on the digital--on your digital 
collection? Because I think we all know you can have stuff out 
there, but it is not easy sometimes for regular people to 
access it unless it is somehow triaged in a format where they 
can get it.
    Ms. Hayden. Right. I mentioned the new app for Library 
collections in your pocket. Doing much more, and this was also 
something that was accelerated during this time, with 
connecting and partnering with other institutions and using 
social media in some innovative ways and connecting and making 
our website more robust and calling it our digital front door. 
So those efforts.
    Now, the digital collecting as well, and our plans on how 
we are going to digitize our manuscript collections, I 
mentioned the 23 Presidential collections, those efforts are 
continuing, and we know that that is another way to make sure 
that people have access. So it is a combination.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Good. What is the Library doing to 
identify and prevent cyber-attacks? We have had so many 
Government agencies as well as businesses be victim to that.
    Ms. Hayden. Yes, and we are part of that. We have 
professionalized our processes. In fact, our new CIO, Judith 
Conklin, who succeeded Bud Barton, is a cybersecurity expert. 
She is right behind me, and she has extensive experience not 
only in the Library, but she is a veteran.
    In fact, she was in charge of that aspect. We have 
implemented NIST IT security standards. One-hundred percent of 
our IT systems currently have authority to operate. That is up 
from about 35 percent in that 2015 overview of the Library's IT 
operations. That was something that was noted that we had to 
concentrate on. We did experience nearly 200,000 attempted 
cyber-attacks last year, and so we are continuing to fortify. 
We have a request in the budget for fiscal year 2022----
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Good segue.
    Ms. Hayden [continuing]. to allow us to expand our IT 
security in the cloud.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay, very good. Thank you. Mr. 
Broughton, you mentioned in your testimony that NLS is 
currently testing its braille e-readers in a pilot program. 
When is that testing going to be completed? When do you expect 
those devices to be widely available?
    Mr. Broughton. Thank you for the question. This is one of 
our areas that I think we are very, very pleased to be talking 
about regarding the types of policies that we are doing. We are 
on track for looking at a variety of items to make sure that 
they are prepared in a way that I would say is very, very 
efficient, effective, and also part of our modernization 
standard in what we are looking at.
    We hopefully expect that as we go through we have a lot of 
pilots, anything from hardware, lockdown devices, all the way 
to a few conversational things, such as smartphones and looking 
at make sure that patrons are able to utilize them in a very 
strategic way and that they enjoy them.
    We hope that they are also accessible in a way that allows 
us to make sure that they are secure and that they are freely 
available. So we are looking at something around, let's say, 
next year in the spring. We definitely have put out about 4,500 
and we hope to up that to about 9,000 very, very soon.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay, very good. Ms. Perlmutter, I 
wanted to just mention, I know we keep track of this because 
one of the issues for us is how long we hear from people about 
how long it takes to process copyrights.
    I think you guys last year began accepting certain 
copyright recordation documents electronically for the first 
time and then reduced average processing times for copyright 
registration applications by almost a month from four to three 
months compared to two years ago. Do you expect to see even 
better processing times as the records go fully electronic?
    Ms. Perlmutter. Yes, I am glad you raised that. We are very 
pleased that we have been able to bring the processing times 
down. We are now getting the vast majority of registration 
applications in electronic form. For those that are fully 
electronic, by which I mean both the application and the 
deposit are electronic, we are processing them on average in 
less than two months. It is very, very quick.
    For those claims that include some physical materials, we 
are bringing more staff back onsite and expect to be able to 
move past whatever happened during the pandemic over the coming 
year. But we do think overall, we will see additional decreases 
in processing times. It is hard to get too much faster. We are 
not going to be able to do them overnight, but we are already 
seeing some declines even since--even in the second half of 
this past fiscal year.
    Once we get past some of the backlogs from the pandemic 
that will manifest itself.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Very good. Since we have been joined 
by the Senator from Tennessee, I thought I would bring up the 
Music Modernization Act, bipartisan legislation that I 
supported that became law in 2018 to update the music licensing 
process, making it easier for songwriters to receive 
compensation from digital streaming services.
    In April of this year, songwriters got their first payments 
from the newly created collective that issues licenses to 
streaming services, collects, distributes the royalties. I know 
that you have issued a number of rulemakings. What has been the 
overall response? Your Office released a report in July making 
recommendations for how the new collective can reduce the 
amount of unclaimed royalties and ensure songwriters are 
receiving their earned compensation.
    What can you tell us about the extent of that issue? How 
many royalties remain unclaimed? I know it is a lot, but maybe 
just tell us about overall response to rulemaking and then the 
royalties remaining unclaimed, and then I will turn to my 
colleagues, and I will ask you questions at the end here. Thank 
you.
    Ms. Perlmutter. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Well, to 
implement the MMA, we actually had to complete nine different 
rulemakings. I am happy to say that both songwriters and the 
music industry generally were very active participants in the 
process.
    So we actually received overall 800 written comments and 
hosted dozens of meetings with affected parties, including 
songwriters. Going forward, we are going to be looking at 
whether any additional regulatory activity is appropriate 
because a number of our rules were adopted on an interim basis. 
We are continuing to be available for meetings with 
stakeholders about any need for further adjustments.
    So that is always a possibility. But so far, we have had no 
indication that the regulations or the statute are not working 
as intended. So the next step for us, in addition to all of the 
outreach we are doing to songwriters, and I can talk more about 
that, and the possible regulatory adjustments is that we will 
be reviewing the collective, the MLC, the Mechanical Licensing 
Collective's performance as part of the statute's five year 
designation process. So that will also be continuing. In terms 
of our report, broadly speaking, we recommended that the MLC 
adopt significant measures to reduce unclaimed royalties, 
including by maximizing outreach and transparency.
    In terms of the extent to which there is an issue, in terms 
of the amount of unmatched historical royalties, the MLC 
reported that in February, 20 digital services transferred a 
total of about $424 million, so it is holding that money. Over 
the course of this year, the MLC has been receiving monthly 
payments from the services under the blanket license and the 
aggregate amount of the new unmatched royalties as opposed to 
historical has of course grown as those payments have been 
made.
    We don't know the precise amount of current unmatched 
royalties that the MLC is holding, but it has reported 
distributing about $200 million to date with an increasing 
match rate, which now averages about 85 percent, which is, I 
think, higher than the industry average.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay, very good. Thank you for that 
thorough answer. We are going to go to Senator Capito, then we 
go to Senator Ossoff and then Senator Hagerty. Thank you.
    Senator Capito. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for 
having the hearing. It is nice to see you again, Dr. Hayden. 
Again, I want to thank you several years ago for visiting 
several libraries in my State of West Virginia, and I have a 
very large picture in my district office of all those beautiful 
children as you were reading aloud to them. So thank you for 
that and I hope you are out moving around again. My first 
simple question, and you might have already testified to this 
is, is the building open, the main building here, open for 
visitors?
    Ms. Hayden. Yes, and thank you for that. Since July, we 
have had timed passes, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, for the 
general public. Before that, we had by appointment for 
researchers, and so that started earlier and had a special 
electronic reading room for that. So we have been doing that 
and it really has been heartening to see the number of people 
who make the appointment online and are able to come in.
    Senator Capito. What about the work force? I noticed in 
some of the backup data that several areas of the work force is 
still remote working. Is there a plan to get everybody back? 
What is your----
    Ms. Hayden. Oh yes, we had a phased operation plan. I have 
to say this is again--thank you to Congress for the investments 
in our IT infrastructure, we were able to go to teleworking in 
almost a seamless way, we increased that about 800 percent in 
terms of the number of staff who can telework.
    The teleworking, and what we have been able to do, for 
instance, in Library services, we were able to have more of 
those collections digitized. We were able to have 
transcriptions going on. With the plan, we are in about--we are 
in the third part of a three part plan to have as many more 
staff members back onsite. It has been interesting because we 
have had quite a bit of communication with staff from the very 
beginning.
    Senator Capito. Is there resistance to coming back since 
they can--they have already proven they can work remotely 
effectively?
    Ms. Hayden. No, no. In fact, it has been interesting. Some 
people are ``Zoomed out.''
    Senator Capito. Right.
    Ms. Hayden. Just to say that they look forward to it. But 
they also have gotten very good at how you can work together 
remotely and also still have different experiences. For 
instance, Ms. Perlmutter might even expand on that, the 
Copyright Office just had an event outside and brought staff in 
together. So the resistance--we had a staff survey.
    Eighty-five percent of the staff members said that they 
think that we have been very supportive of their health issues 
and concerns, and they want to greet the public. One thing we 
have done in terms of our volunteers, we have virtual volunteer 
stations. So our volunteers were able to, when people are 
there, especially in the Jefferson building, they can interact 
with a virtual volunteer.
    Senator Capito. That is interesting. I know when I was the 
appropriator for--that included the Library, one of the big 
issues was storage and records. I think that you have an 
alternative location where you are moving a lot of your 
records. How is that project going?
    Ms. Hayden. Yes. That is the long term physical storage at 
Fort Meade. We have six physical storage units at Fort Meade, 
Maryland, and we are planning for the 7th module. I am 
hesitating a little bit because the funding for that had been 
reprogrammed and so we really need this 7th module, and they 
are going to be nine total. That is moving along.
    Senator Capito. Okay. I don't know why I had it in my mind 
that you would have gone down to Southwest Virginia for some--
--
    Ms. Hayden. Oh, that is Culpeper.
    Senator Capito. Culpeper. What is----
    Ms. Hayden. Oh, that is the David Packard Center. That is 
where the moving images and sound recordings, and it is one of 
the largest. That has been able to, of course, continue. We 
have the physical archives of companies and things like that.
    Senator Capito. Okay. Alright. Thank you.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. We were just planning a field trip 
down there, Senator Blunt, for the Committee. Next up, Senator 
Ossoff.
    Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Madam Chair, Ranking Member 
Blunt. Thank you to our witnesses. Thank you, Dr. Hayden, for 
your service. Dr. Mazanec, I would like to engage with you 
about the extraordinary work that you and your team do it at 
CRS. My staff and I rely upon your experts, your research, your 
analysis every day. The decisions of Members of Congress make 
are only as good as the information that we have on hand to 
make judgments and conduct analysis.
    We are too often surrounded by partisan narratives, media 
narratives, one sided talking points, talking points that 
reflect the interests of outside groups and their funders, 
talking points that represent the interests of executive 
agencies. For Congress to have its own research service that is 
dedicated to objectivity and empiricism and sound information 
is so important.
    I want to discuss how we might grow those capabilities, 
what your key shortcomings are, where you don't have sufficient 
experts. Because as invaluable as the work that you and your 
team do is. I would like as a Member and I would like for my 
staff to have access to more of it and faster round the clock 
and for your research and analysis capabilities, for your fact 
gathering capabilities to rival those of executive agencies who 
often have themselves more research capacity than the entire 
legislative branch does so.
    What would be your vision, if you were less resource 
constrained, for the growth of the Congressional Research 
Service to serve that mission?
    Ms. Mazanec. Thank you for that question. If I had 
unlimited resources, I definitely would bolster our expertise, 
not only in high demand areas, but also in emerging areas. I 
would also want to bring on staff to overlap with individuals 
that are nearing retirement so that we could pass off 
information. There are other initiatives that I would like to 
put resources on. I mentioned one in my testimony, the 
Knowledge Management Initiative.
    We really need to capture our work product, the knowledge 
that we are creating, and also capture the tacit knowledge. 
What the pandemic has really underscored is the importance of 
IT as a tool for us to do our work and to publish it and 
present it to Congress. We are in the middle of an IT 
modernization initiative, but additional resources would allow 
us to make sure that our IT systems are continually supported. 
A lot of the initiatives are dependent on developmental work 
from our colleagues in the Office of the Chief Information 
Officer.
    The other area that I would put resources on besides 
personnel and IT would probably be research materials. Some of 
the data bases, especially some of the online resource 
materials, are costly. That would be another area that we would 
hopefully be able to add resources to.
    So there is a lot of things that we can do. We leveraged 
the Libraries, offices and support. Obviously, to bring on more 
staff requires H.R. experts, both within CRS and within the 
Library's H.R. Office. That would be another area that I would 
like to reinforce. So there is all sorts of things that is only 
limited by the imagination of myself and my colleagues at CRS.
    Senator Ossoff. The resources that we allocate for these 
purposes. That is where I think we have a job to do. I would 
submit to colleagues on both sides of the aisle that for the 
legislative branch to function at the highest potential that we 
need to be able to rely upon information and research that is 
conducted by the legislative branch.
    That the institution in mind, just a few months here thus 
far, is heavily reliant on outside groups and executive 
agencies for information, and the information that we receive 
from those parties reflects their interests. That, I think can 
have a negative impact on our ability to come to our own 
conclusions independently. Well, how long does it take you to 
staff up, if you wanted to add personnel in key issue areas? 
You know, what is the hiring process? What is the--yes, please. 
What is the----
    Ms. Mazanec. CRS follows the merit selection plan laid out 
by the Library. It usually takes a matter of months to really 
bring somebody on board from the outside. On an annual basis, 
we probably do an average of 45 hires a year. Some of those are 
new positions. Some are back fills to people that have 
departed, left for other opportunities, or who have retired. 
With more resources we probably could expedite the process and 
bring on more people.
    Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Dr. Mazanec. Let's meet in 
person, and Dr. Hayden love to sit down with you as well and 
talk about some development of a strategic vision to grow your 
capabilities. Thank you.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you, Senator Ossoff. Thank you 
for your comments about relying--both sides relying too much on 
talking points and information from groups as opposed to 
independent research. You are wise for your short time here on 
the Committee, so thank you. Yes, Senator Hagerty.
    Senator Hagerty. Well, thank you, Chair Klobuchar, Ranking 
Member Blunt. It is a pleasure to be with you both today. I 
want to thank all of our witnesses too. I appreciate your being 
here. As Chair Klobuchar might guess, I would love to talk 
about the Music Modernization Act and thank her for her 
leadership in bringing that to bare. It is an issue that is 
near and dear to people in my home State of Tennessee.
    Ms. Perlmutter, I am going to turn my questions to you 
because the folks in my home state really care about 
songwriters and their music. As I think about my state, the 
birthplace of country music is in Bristol, and the music 
heritage runs all the way through our State to Memphis, and of 
course, you know, that is the home of the Blues. Nashville just 
seems to grow every day as a hub for music.
    We have a very--a very robust entertainment industry there, 
and it really is the heart and soul of Tennessee's culture. In 
2018, my predecessor, Senator Lamar Alexander, was a driving 
force behind the Music Modernization Act, and as I understand 
it and talking with him, it is the most comprehensive overhaul 
of music copyright laws that has taken place in decades. The 
legislation ensures that songwriters are paid a fair market 
value for their work, and it makes it easier for them to obtain 
compensation for use of their music by streaming services.
    Ms. Perlmutter, your office plays a key role in ensuring 
that the Music Modernization Act is properly implemented, and I 
want to point out one specific success that you have already 
mentioned here today, and that is already paying great 
dividends for the industry, and that is the mechanical 
licensing collective, the MLC that you mentioned, which is the 
nonprofit entity that is designated by the United States 
Copyright Office to collect royalties from streaming services 
and distribute those royalties to songwriters and music 
publishers.
    The MLC also gives artists much more control over their 
works and their data. In 2021, the MLC began administering 
blanket mechanical licenses and distributing royalties. I 
appreciate your update on the MLC and what they have already 
distributed, and what you have distributed to songwriters and 
music publishers is making a real difference in their lives. I 
am also pleased that songwriters and publishers are 
increasingly getting fair market value for their work, and that 
is happening with much more speed and much more certainty, so I 
applaud you for that.
    Ms. Perlmutter, I would like to not only thank you for your 
leadership in implementing the Act, but I would like you to 
just take a few minutes to describe some of the successes that 
you have observed as you have implemented the Act, and if you 
can identify next steps that you would see to increase that 
success.
    Ms. Perlmutter. Well, we have been very pleased to see the 
system get up and running in January as it was supposed to, and 
to see the royalties start to be paid out on a timely basis. So 
we are following that very closely. Most of the feedback we 
have heard has been positive. We are not hearing a lot of 
complaints, although I am sure there always are some in any new 
system----
    Senator Hagerty. They come to my office, I think.
    Ms. Perlmutter. That may be the case. Please feel free to 
send them along to us. We are doing a lot of educational 
outreach because as the statute and the legislative history 
recognize, that is a key component to making this new system 
work because it is such a major change. So we have already 
engaged in more than 50 different outreach activities, 
including very much focusing on educating songwriters about how 
to claim ownership of works in the MLC data base and how to 
receive royalties for their use. We have a website that informs 
the public of how the system works and what the relevant dates 
are, the implementation dates. We have prepared extensive 
educational materials, a lot of them in writing. We have online 
video tutorials.
    We have a collection of interviews of Members of Congress 
who were involved in passage of the legislation, and we also 
have created an MMA email newsletter. So we are very actively 
involved. I shouldn't leave out the fact that we are actively 
engaging and partnering with organizations that represent 
songwriters and others who are affected so that they will get 
the word out to their members.
    So I think all is going well. We don't, of course, oversee 
the day to day operations of the MLC, but we are watching how 
it is operating and what is happening. You know, as I have 
said, because our regulations were mostly issued on an interim 
basis, we are keeping watch to see whether any adjustments need 
to be made and we will be exercising oversight through the 5-
year designation process.
    Meanwhile, we have advertised that we welcome feedback from 
stakeholders via email during the interim period as we head 
along to the 5-year date.
    Senator Hagerty. Well, I appreciate your continued 
oversight. If there is anything that you need from the Senate, 
from the Congress, I hope that you won't hesitate to let me, 
and my office know. I am certain that Chair Klobuchar feels the 
same way as other Members of this Committee that have had such 
a such an impact on passing this legislation. So thank you for 
the work that you are doing.
    Ms. Perlmutter. Thank you, Senator Hagerty.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you for those great questions. 
Next up, Senator Blunt has some followup questions.
    Senator Blunt. Well, thank you. Thank you, Chair. Mr. 
Broughton, does every state have a Library for the blind and 
print disabled?
    Mr. Broughton. You have a network of 90 libraries across 
the country and they can be affiliated through state libraries 
or their own separate library for the blind specifically.
    Senator Blunt. How was Vermont set up? Did you have the 
library for the blind under your jurisdiction there?
    Mr. Broughton. It was. It was under the State Library. In 
fact, it is known as the Vermont Department of Libraries, so I 
was the State Librarian Commissioner, and it was organized as 
its own unit within the State Library. One of the things that 
we tried to do early on when we heard about the Marrakesh 
Treaty was to actually figure out in our small way in Vermont 
what we could do to kind of be a part of that as it was being 
worked upon.
    The most unique thing that we did as we work to rename the 
actual service, the talking book service. We felt that we 
wanted to talk about these services as opposed to the service 
population, so we immediately rebranded it the ABLE Library, 
which stands for audio, braille, large print, electronic 
resources.
    Our Governor and of course, the agency Secretary that we 
were under were really, really thrilled. It sounded like the 
Vermonters there who love the change took off with it and it 
has never stopped, and we didn't look back.
    Senator Blunt. Are you still using the traditional 
equipment or like the levee system that the Library put in has 
audio books that you can get in several different ways. How are 
you getting information to people now?
    Mr. Broughton. Goodness, under that service, I would say, 
along with our network, there are transitions. We are in a 
sense looking at a variety of things. We are having some of our 
older modes come back to us in the sense of the cartridges or 
the blue cases that people would have actually know.
    I remember when there were that actually green cases, when 
I was a child, remember that there was a record player. So you 
are always talking about the change in format and design having 
to always be something that we need to be cognizant of. Right 
now, we are constantly letting people kind of play around with 
our pilots so we can get a better understanding of what our 
user base might want to participate within.
    Geography plays a role in that when you talk about things 
with telecommunications, so it is streaming options, smart 
voice activated things need to be also considered. So we are 
having a lot of things examined by our user base, particularly 
in your home state with the Wolfner Library.
    Senator Blunt. I think Wolfner has about 8,000 active 
subscribers and more than half of them are over 65, but still, 
it is an active network.
    Mr. Broughton. I would definitely agree. A lot of our user 
base is of a certain demographic, and looking at expanding what 
we like to do, we hope to utilize the service where it is a 
service for all persons from including reading disabled all the 
way through vision impaired and physical handicap along with, I 
would say, a generation of young and youth oriented people be a 
part of the service.
    So we are looking to have, I would say, everyone to 
understand what that service is, as opposed to viewing it in a 
unique way for certain types of individuals. There is just a 
lot of things that we were trying to do in a wonderful way as 
we prepare for the future because there is a lot of wonderful 
options that we have at our disposal to examine. With that, we 
have to make sure our patron base has those options that are 
applicable, best use for them, which includes we will probably 
always have a hard line in the sense of hardware being needed.
    Not everybody is going to be able to stream or download if 
technology allows that. So we will probably have to have some 
devices that we will always retain or migrate to like your own, 
a smartphone, for example, could be used as opposed to those 
options for the future.
    Senator Blunt. Yes, not a question, but I think and maybe 
it was the March Inspector General Report this year that said 
that this agency had traditionally had a hard time staying on 
time and on budget. I am sure that that is one of the things 
you intend to focus on. At CRS, in the modernization area, I 
think you were behind schedule in that and then finally 
terminated the contract. You want to talk about that just a 
little bit?
    Ms. Mazanec. So our IRIS initiative is a multi-year, multi-
project initiative to modernize IT systems that are CRS 
specific. We are in year four of the initiative. In the last 
year, we had to terminate contracts with two vendors because 
they were unable to deliver the final product. Those contracts 
have been reissued. We went through a solicitation project--
process to get new vendors on board.
    The IT Modernization Initiative was actually conceptualized 
now six, seven years ago. Our approach has changed from an on 
premise approach to now a cloud based approach. That may 
actually help facilitate us moving forward on modernizing our 
systems.
    My hope is that we can still bring IRIS to completion on 
schedule and on budget, but IT costs have increased, and we are 
adopting a new approach for our authoring and publishing 
system. Now all that being said, we have made significant 
progress in some of our work streams, such as the TAP program, 
which is our bill--our text analysis program, also in our 
taxonomy efforts.
    Senator Blunt. Right. Well, the lowest proposal is often 
not the best proposal, certainly not if they can't--and not 
saying you took the lowest proposal but having a sense that 
people can do the work really matters. I think, Ms. Perlmutter, 
you had a situation a little bit like that where you had a 
vendor that just didn't perform. I think that decision surely 
was made before you got there. Talk about that a little bit.
    Ms. Perlmutter. To be honest, Senator Blunt, that was 
before my time and I am not really familiar with the 
circumstances, but we can certainly get you that information.
    Senator Blunt. So that project was, vender was scheduled--
was canceled before you got there? Am I----
    Ms. Perlmutter. I believe so. I am not sure which--but we 
can get--but we can certainly provide you all the details after 
the hearings, sir.
    Senator Blunt. Okay. Well, I think the vendor effort 
failed, so you can get me some more information on that. My 
last question for you, talk a little bit about the 
implementation of the CASE Act, the effort to make it easier 
for people who aren't surrounded by attorneys and litigators to 
protect themselves.
    Ms. Perlmutter. Yes, thank you. Senator, this is one of my 
favorite topics, actually. So we are very excited that we are 
in the process of setting up this new small claims tribunal, 
and we have been working very intensively to get it set up by 
the statutory deadline. At present, we expect to have all the 
necessary elements in place before the end of the year. We have 
hired already the three Copyright Claims Officers, they are on 
board in the office. I just saw them this afternoon and we are 
on track to finalize all of the hiring of the rest of the 
staff. We issued a notice of inquiry to solicit public comment 
about all aspects of the procedures to be followed. We have now 
put in place a series of rulemakings to propose the practices 
and procedures for the Board.
    So several have already closed, some are still out for 
comment, and there are a couple of more still to come. Then we 
have been collaborating with the Library, the OCIO and other 
parts of the Library, to ready the necessary office space and 
the IT that will be needed for the Board to operate. So things 
are going very well, and we are looking forward to having the 
Board up and running.
    Senator Blunt. You are--the Board that will serve as sort 
of an arbitration board, is that how that is envisioned to 
work?
    Ms. Perlmutter. Yes, they are able to hear claims, disputes 
involving copyright that have a value of up to $30,000 per 
dispute, and it can be a claim brought by a copyright owner 
alleging infringement or someone who wants to use the work and 
wants essentially a declaratory judgment of non-infringement 
before they start, or someone who is claiming that there has 
been misrepresentation in a notice under the Digital Millennium 
Copyright Act. So the three Officers will hear the dispute--
most of it will be done remotely--and issue a decision.
    Senator Blunt. Right. Dr. Hayden, when we talked the other 
day about the veterans project, there were two things we talked 
about that I would like you to comment on a little bit. One is 
the gold star impact and two is efforts to get recent veterans 
to go ahead and begin to talk about that--their experiences, 
while those experiences are still fresher in their mind and 
maybe get them a little more comfortable with sharing the 
experiences that they want to share.
    Ms. Hayden. We are very pleased that the gold star family 
aspect has been added to what the Veterans History Project has 
been able to do. We have over 110,000 oral histories already. 
What that aspect has done is given us outreach much farther 
than we would have had with the actual veterans themselves. 
These are family members, and one actual mother told me that 
she was disappointed that her son couldn't talk about it.
    With this act, the mother can talk about it and expand on 
that. That has been something that has helped us when we work 
with the members. We worked this past year, your office, and 
with over 52 members to do videos, to do public service 
announcements, and town halls, to talk about the Veterans 
History Project. That will continue.
    We are working on technology aspects with that so that 
people would have possibly an app and they could use and record 
and have that opportunity to record with direction, the 
veterans or the family members in their lives. Great 
participation in terms of working with veterans groups with the 
more recent conflicts and engagements because they are 
especially--the veterans that come from Vietnam--sometimes, 
there is a reluctance there and so we have made a concerted 
effort with that group and then the recent engagements as well.
    Senator Blunt. Thank you, Chair.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Well, very much, thank you, Senator 
Blunt. I--you know, there is the old saying, not everything has 
been said, but I haven't said it, or I haven't asked it in the 
United States Senate. I am not actually going to ask any more 
questions. I think my colleagues did an incredible job and I 
want to thank Ranking Member Blunt and the Members of the 
Committee for conducting a very productive and informative 
hearing.
    I am also grateful to all of our witnesses for appearing 
before us in person today and for the work you are doing on 
behalf of our Nation's Library. Thanks to your ongoing efforts, 
the Library of Congress continues to make significant progress 
in implementing recommendations to address the challenges that 
it faces and is taking important steps to modernize and adapt 
to an increasingly digital environment while continuing to 
improve the experience of those who visit in person.
    I am looking forward to seeing the conservationist as you 
described it, Dr. Hayden. In today's hearing, we heard more 
about varied and essential services offered by the Library. 
Whether you are an artist, Ms. Perlmutter, looking to protect 
your work, whether you are blind or print disabled in need of 
reading materials. By the way, Mr. Broughton, you did a very 
good job for your first time in front of us. You know, even----
    Mr. Broughton. It is appreciated.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar.--in reference to the Missouri Library 
was especially impressive. Or whether you are someone seeking 
information about policy issues. Very, very good, Ms. Mazanec. 
I think you have clearly a new fan in our--one of our newest, 
our newest and youngest senators, Senator Ossoff.
    The Library has resources for you. I look forward to 
continuing to work with all four of you and the Members of this 
Committee to support your important programs. The hearing 
record will remain open for one week and we are adjourned. 
Thank you.
    [Whereupon, at 4:22 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
    

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